It's What Kerouac Would Have Done

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Whenever the organizers behind the second annual Central Florida Book & Music Festival face a problem or a question, they simply ask, "WWJD?"

What would Jack do?

"That's been the guiding light," says Marty Cummins, who co-founded the project with his wife, Jan, and Bob Kealing.

"Our goal is to recognize writing talent and raise the profile of literature and put Central Florida on the international arts map."

The festival, presented by the Kerouac Project of Orlando and Cummins' Chapters Bread and Books, aims to do that with a celebration of what Jack Kerouac might have enjoyed: nurturing new talent and exposing people to literature.

The lineup for the festival features "something-for-everyone" events such as concerts by musician David Amram, a street festival, a spoken-word event and Kerouac House tours.

"We're a broad-based organization that encourages literature of all times," Cummins says. "We're happy that it's become a family event. It has something for everyone."

The festival kicked off last week with events featuring Amram and writer Dan Wakefield.

It continues today with an Amram dinner concert at 7 p.m. at Chapters in College Park. Amram, an accomplished musician who worked with Kerouac on the 1959 underground flick Pull My Daisy, has come to Orlando several times to support the Kerouac Project.

"He called us when he heard about the Kerouac Project from [co-founder] Bob Kealing through the Kerouac estate in Massachusetts," Cummins says. "He said this is the first time anyone has done what Jack Kerouac would have done if he had lived."

Amran, known as the "godfather of the project," also performs with local musicians at the outdoor jazz concert at Albert Park, starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The free concert is part of a weekend street festival that includes children's events, a book sale and an auction -- including items signed by Pete Seeger, Steve Allen, Dan Wakefield, Norman Mailer and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Also on Saturday, Kerouac fans and devotees can tour the project house in College Park, which has been renovated. The hourly tours begin at noon and run through 5 p.m. Kealing, a reporter with WESH-Channel 2, will be conducting the tours and discussing the house, scheduled to be featured in an upcoming episode of C-Span's American Writers Series.

"I'm . . . glad to be conducting tours that will showcase the marvelous renovations so many people have made happen at the Kerouac House," Kealing says. "Just six years ago, it was a pretty beat-up Florida cracker house in serious danger of being torn down."

The Kerouac house, where the author lived in 1957 and 1958 and where he wrote The Dharma Bums, is at Clouser Avenue and Shady Lane in College Park. Tour admission is $5, with proceeds benefiting the Kerouac Project.

Poetry fans might want to mark Saturday night on their calendars. That's the debut of the first Kerouac Project/Philips Phile Poetry Slam Phest, a spoken-word event with about 30 poets competing for prizes. The event will be hosted by Real Radio's Jim Philips, who initially mentioned the idea of a spoken-word program on his show.

"Jim mentioned that he always wanted to have a spoken-word event in Orlando but didn't think that it would be supported," says Loren Ford, Slam Phest organizer. "I thought it could be supported, and with his backing and [Kerouac Project's] backing during our event, we could pull it off. And that started the ball rolling."

The Slam Phest will be held at Dubsdread Country Club at 10:15 p.m. Saturday, and while there's no cover for the event, seating is limited.

"The purpose [of the festival] is to capture the spirit and the inspiration that was Jack Kerouac," Cummins says.

"Kerouac was in favor of quality, not content, embracing all forms of writing -- even if they didn't fit into his own personal belief system. The Kerouac Festival continues the tradition."